The use of plant proteins in foodstuffs to replace animal raw materials such as egg or milk is becoming increasingly important. Plant proteins display excellent techno-functional properties in a large number of food applications. Protein preparations made from raw materials such as soya, rice, wheat, peas, lupines or other protein-containing plant seeds are used in foodstuffs as water binders, oil binders, gel-forming agents, emulsifiers or foaming agents, for example.
All known plant protein products made from leguminous plants, such as soya, peas or lupines, display a flavour profile typical of leguminous plants. This was described by tasters as grassy, bean-like, pea-like or green during sensory evaluations and is undesirable in most food applications.
Various attempts have been made to mask this flavour or remove unwanted flavour components. Examples of this are the treatment of protein solutions with milk acid fermentation or the adsorption of flavours by ion exchangers. The addition of masking flavours and very bitter or strong-tasting flavours, such as grapefruit or passion fruit, for example, are also used. The methods and flavours are very expensive and do not produce neutral-tasting protein preparations. The protein preparations cannot therefore be used universally and the choice of flavour is severely restricted. The aforementioned methods are not therefore suitable for producing leguminous plant protein preparations with a neutral flavour profile.
What is understood by flavour profile in this context is the impression of aroma and taste given when smelling and consuming the protein preparations. Depending on the origin of the protein preparations, an aroma and taste impression typical of seeds is evident, which results from the seed's own constituent substances, such as phenolic compounds, for example, or changes in the seed's constituent substances due to chemical, physical or enzymatic changes. Depending on the concentration of strongly flavoured constituent substances and the intensity of the change reactions, the typical seed flavour profile is therefore more or less evident. A neutral flavour profile is characterised by the fact that the original aroma- and flavour-generating components in the protein preparations are no longer significantly noticeable.